


The Discovery

by cyberlowlife



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Eddie stands up for himself, Established Relationship, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, Homophobia, M/M, Sonia is homophobic, high school age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 03:48:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20772041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyberlowlife/pseuds/cyberlowlife
Summary: Eddie's mom finds out he's gay in easily the most ridiculous way possible.





	The Discovery

Eddie never planned to come out to his mom. Not until she was on her deathbed, or he was out of her suffocating clutches, although it seemed that would never happen. To his credit, he made it up until sophomore year of high school before she found out- she always found out his secrets. It was a simple mistake, really; he and Richie had taken one of her magazines, the ones with barely clothed guys for women to gawk at, because they didn’t have access to anything else.

They figured she wouldn’t miss it, considering how many magazines she had, but of course she did after a while. They had tucked it away under Eddie’s mattress when they had finished looking through it the first time, because Eddie was 100% positive Sonia would never look under there. She had no reason to go lifting up his mattress just for the hell of it. But, of course, she did this time.

Sonia had cleaned Eddie’s room while he was at school, as she did. Normally, she only checked his dresser drawers and underneath his entire bed for items he shouldn’t have, but she had noticed one of her magazines was missing a few days earlier, and had a sneaking suspicion her son or that loud mouthed boy had taken it. She knew what this would mean, if her suspicions were confirmed, of course, but she knew that would be for the best, because she could help her son with his issues this way.

She didn’t confront him right away, of course. She hoped he would come to her and confess (he didn’t). She also knew that Richie Tozier had something to do with this, he had been corrupting her precious son since they were 11 years old after all. So, she waited until both of the boys were in her home, “studying”, she was told, in Eddie’s room with the door cracked. 

They were studying, but only because Richie was failing his English and Math classes and his parents were one F away from grounding him for the rest of the school year. They were sitting on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, books and papers and Richie’s failed math tests spread across the floor. Eddie was trying to get Richie to memorize the quadratic formula, and Richie was too busy watching the way Eddie’s mouth moved when he spoke. He let out distant affirmative noises when Eddie looked at him, but they both knew this wasn’t going to stick, and this study session would devolve into kissing within the next ten minutes. They weren’t dating, no, of course not, they just… practiced together. Kissing. Holding hands. Going on dates. Cuddling. But only as practice and only as friends. They were too scared to label themselves as a couple, and even more scared to label themselves as gay.

Of course, studying never got to devolve into kissing and anything else they decided to do, because as Richie was just working up to shutting up Eddie with his own mouth, Sonia opened the door. Richie let out an audible groan- not on purpose- and sat back so not even their shoulders were touching. He didn’t know why they always decided to do this at Eddie’s house, and he decided in the future to suggest maybe studying in the Barrens or something.

He was still thinking about these plans when Sonia spoke. Her voice was disappointed, fearful, and a little angry. Richie knew she was about to give both of them hell.

Sonia dropped the magazine in front of the two boys, who immediately froze up. Of course the Tozier boy was part of this. She should’ve known. “Eddie… I noticed one of my magazines was missing a few days ago, and when I went to clean your room, I found this hidden under your mattress…” her voice wavered. She wanted there to be a logical explanation for this outside of the obvious, but she knew what the answer was.

“Ma, I-” Eddie couldn’t even force out a lie. He choked on his words, his breaths coming in short gasps. His inhaler was on his nightstand, but he felt glued to the floor.

“No excuses, Eddie. I know why you had this,” Sonia said, and then turned her gaze upon Richie. “It’s because of this boy. I knew I shouldn’t have let you spend so much time with him- he’s finally corrupted you. He made you sicker than I ever thought he could!” her voice was on the verge of hysterical, her eyes wide and her hands shaking. 

Richie and Eddie recoiled. They knew this was coming as soon as Sonia had stepped into the room, but that didn’t make the words sting less. Neither of them said a thing. When she was like this, there was no getting through to her.

“I want you to stop hanging out with this boy. If he’s convincing you to steal these magazines to- to worsen your illness, there’s no telling what else he’s convinced you to do- with him,” she said, queasiness coming over her as the two boys looked at each other. She could see the guilt in their eyes, and knew her suspicions were confirmed. “I want you out of my house and away from my son, Richard Tozier!” she finally yelled. “You’ve corrupted him enough and I won’t let it contimue! I always knew there was something wrong with you… I should’ve known better than to let you near my sweet Eddie- Now look what you’ve done!” she wailed, pointing at her son, who was shaking violently with fear, his breath coming in desperate gasps and tears shining in his eyes.

Richie scrambled to his feet. He knew if he wasn’t quick, Sonia would forcibly remove him from the house. He backed up, standing in the doorway was Sonia stepped over to Eddie and helped him to his feet. She held him against her chest, crooning as she stroked his hair. 

“It’ll be okay, Eddie. We’ll get you help, we’ll go to this therapist I’ve been looking at in Bangor, we’ll make you better, okay?” 

Eddie mustered up what little courage he had at that statement, shoving away from his mom and stumbling to his nightstand. He took a puff from his inhaler, his breathing slowly deepening. “No, Ma, we won’t. Because I’m not sick! And Richie didn’t corrupt me. I was always this way. He just helped me accept myself! Something you could learn how to do as well,” he said, circling around Sonia to his door as he did. “I won’t let you take me to some conversion therapy shit- yeah, I know what getting better entails, Ma. You wanna fry my brain? Make me not just a fucking vegetable, but a GAY vegetable?! Because that’s what’ll happen! You’ll just make me actually sick!” his voice broke as he raised it, tears rolling unnoticed down his cheeks. 

Richie grabbed at Eddie’s arm, tugging him back gently as Sonia stuttered through her excuses for how this would help them both. “Eds, Eds come on you need to leave before she actually snaps,” his voice was gentle but desperate, and Eddie knew he was right. He could see in her eyes that she was seconds away from grabbing him and forcing him into the car right then and there. 

“I’ll… I’ll be back when you’ve learned to accept me, Ma.” His voice was calm and steady, and he looked Sonia dead in the eyes as he said it. After that, he let Richie drag him away, out the door of his home, his mom’s cries echoing in his head. 

They ran, afraid she would come after them, until Eddie couldn’t take it anymore. He dropped to his knees, taking desperate puffs from his inhaler until he had enough breath to finally, genuinely cry. Shaking sobs that wracked his frame and had him gasping for breath. Richie said nothing, just sat beside him and held him until the hysteria and fear subsided.

“It’ll be okay, Eds. She’ll come around. She’ll start going through her Eddie withdrawals in a day or two, and you can work something out. For now… you can stay at my place, okay? My folks won’t mind and we can just… tell them your mom went out of town for a while or something. And we can get some of your clothes when your mom goes to work tomorrow. Before school,” Richie rambled until he couldn’t hear Eddie crying anymore. He looked down and saw he was nodding his head, and that was enough for Richie to stand and pull him to his feet, holding Eddie’s hand the entire walk back to his house.

“Everything will be okay, my love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Hope you guys liked this! Let me know if I should make this into more than just a one-shot! I sorta want to, but I wanna know what you guys think!


End file.
